Green Options

The Mediterranean diet is not only good for its more well-known reasons — protecting against heart disease and cancer. According to a new study published in the Archives of General Psychiatry, the Mediterranean diet, rich in fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grains, olive oil, nuts, and fish, may decrease risk of depression.

A recent study by UK scientists discovered that a common soil bacteria activates cells in the brain to produce serotonin and can alter behavior similar to antidepressants.

“These studies help us understand how the body communicates with the brain and why a healthy immune system is important for maintaining mental health. They also leave us wondering if we shouldn’t all be spending more time playing in the dirt.” - Dr Chris Lowry, Bristol University

Since Paul Erhlich wrote The Population Bomb, it’s long been recognized that uncontrolled human population growth is the greatest threat to our planet.  Coupled with an economic recession, many families, including the first family, recognize that small family size is crucial for surviving the current depression and climate crisis.  That’s why President Obama has endorsed a $10,000 tax credit for American males that undergo vasectomies, essentially making the surgical procedure free.

According to CNN Health:

Since then, the Cleveland Clinic has seen a 50 percent increase in vasectomies, an outpatient surgery that is the cheapest form of permanent birth control. Vasectomies are less invasive and cheaper than tubal ligation, which involves blocking, tieing or cutting a woman’s fallopian tubes to prevent pregnancy.

A five year probe of Forest Laboratories by the U.S. Justice Department into illegal marketing of Lexapro to children has an ironic twist to it: The FDA just approved the use of Lexapro for depression in children.

“Federal health care programs have paid thousands of false and fraudulent claims for Celexa and Lexapro prescriptions that were not covered for off-label pediatric use and/or were ineligible for payment as a result of illegal kickbacks paid by Forest.”

If you haven’t heard the economy is in the drink. It seems every time I turn around there is more news of another bank or company on the brink, with no foreseeable end in sight.

We’ve heard the comparisons that this recession looks very much like the great depression. It is hitting everyone’s pocket book, no matter your socioeconomic status. This free fall to the bottom isn’t discriminating.

So why should you craft when there is even less disposable income for you to play with? Well here are my top reasons you should craft when times are tough:

Why this matters to green and organic products, is that more and more, stores are offering their own brand of organic and green products. And so now green businesses face the same challenges and pressures with which major consumer package goods manufacturers have struggled for years - How to deal with private label.

Many people find themselves a bit blue during the cold, gray months of winter.  Some have SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder), while others only have minor mood changes.  You don’t have to wait for spring to feel better… there are natural ways to beat the winter blues.

Try these natural options before you seek out traditional medicine.  As always, its a good idea to check with your Doctor before making any dietary/activity/lifestyle changes to make sure you are healthy enough and won’t experience a medication contradiction.

(Photo by Sebastian Knight at Dreamstime under RF-LL)

The recession deepens.  Even Barack Obama is saying that it’s going to get worse before it gets better.  Unemployment is getting dangerously close to 10% nationwide, a level we haven’t seen in decades. With every cloud is a silver lining, of course, and I think one that we must focus on is that we should be taking this time to plant some seeds that will pay off handsomely down the road. 

I’m an avid gardener.  I live in San Francisco, and have a garden full of winter crops:  lettuce, kale, kumquat, lemons, spinach, rosemary, mint, and a variety of other herbs that are in full force right now.  I recently added a plum tree, an almond tree, and an apple tree, all ultra-dwarves to accomodate my limited San Francisco-style backyard, and was telling a friend how much fun I was having.  He said, and I quote, “Sheesh.  Are you hunkering down for the Great Depression, or what?”

It was a brilliant comment, and made me think about what businesses could be doing during this downturn that would ‘bear fruit’, if you don’t mind the pun, later down the road.  For a green business during this time of economic hardship, there are a lot of opportunities to reach out to a disgruntled workforce, a slowing customer base, and other local businesses in the area to plant some seeds. 

Stress… it’s something we deal with on a daily basis.  Some of us take it all in stride, others let it build up to the breaking point.

When we experience stress too often, our autonomic nervous system rarely has a chance to activate the relaxation response.  This can eventually lead to physical or emotional illnesses such as high blood pressure, irritable bowel syndrome, insomnia, and depression to name just a few.

Making simple diet changes can help reduce stress, here are a few tips to get you started:

(Remember to always use organically grown foods when possible, it’s healthier for you and for the planet.)

No longer do we need to look to history books and grandparents to know what the darkest days of the Great Depression were like: we are there if consumer prices are any indication.

After being fairly fearful as a child, I am happy to say that not much genuinely scares me nowadays. The list of things that make me want to hide under the covers at night is quite short: clowns, Teletubbies, Pee Wee Herman, SPAM (the kind in the can), Disco. Overall, then, I am a pretty happy and peaceful fellow–though like all humans I still have my moments of nervousness and anxiety.

Nevertheless, I have often experienced periods of serious dread and despair when it comes to the environment. Even when my green aura does not develop streaks of black, I frequently sense an underlying fear about the future state of the Earth and my life upon it. Sometimes, a specific cause will precipitate these fits of fear. Perhaps some scientific study or news report will declare some more grim data and dire predictions–the International Panel on Climate Change’s most recent report, for example, or another attempt to allow oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Perhaps a book or magazine article I read will draw my attention to the poor state of affairs and the bleak outlook they seem to foreshadow–Lester Brown’s Plan B 2.0 or Mark Lynas’s Six Degrees come to mind. At other times, though, there will be no direct cause that I can point to…the fear just sits there gnawing at away my innards.

Earth Day 2007 was a particularly rough time for me. As the holiday approached, usually a joyous one for me, it seemed that all my usual natural delights caused sharp pangs of grief and concern instead. All I could feel was a sense of their fragility and impending destruction. Then, when the Virginia Tech shootings occurred, I nearly broke down and lost all hope in anything.

I wanted to write about these sorts of experiences because I think many other environmentalists, and even folks who simply care about some patch of Earth or appreciate a good sunset, likely have experienced similar moments of fear, despair, and hopelessness. This seems almost inevitable, since there is so much bad news coming at us left and right, with terrible predictions about food shortages and natural disasters and species loss, and with the period for reversing the downward spiral apparently getting shorter. Speaking for myself, I cannot help but be afraid when I think of what my own life will be like in the world to come, what unknown struggles and sacrifices I will be forced to suffer through.

So I am hoping here to open up a discussion about ways for coping with these Dark Nights of the Green. I have found a few things that seem to work pretty well, and I know other folks have similar approaches to loosening that knot of terror that often develops deep within your gut.